NPR frets over podcasting

This isn’t a huge surprise: NPR affiliates are concerned that podcasts from the large market stations (like KCRW) will cause listeners to switch off their local affiliates, especially during the pledge drives that pay the bills.

I like the argument at the end that the broader reach of shows, wherever they’re produced, should be used to find more underwriting money and that local stations should invest in creating smart local programming of national interest. (Too often, local NPR stations seem to just replay the national shows and maybe classical music. That model needs work in the 21st century.)

One thing overlooked in the story is that broadcasting costs money — KCRW has a series of towers all over Southern California to extend the channel’s reach up and down the dial, for instance — and that it’s certainly possible to readjust spending priorities so that Internet bandwidth is where most of the audience is reached, at an overall savings. Instead of supplementing broadcasting, it could (and probably should) replace it in some areas.

But content is king. If some of the, frankly, pretty awful NPR stations are forced to change or die, the NPR audience and the network itself will be better off.

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